Promoting transparency and building accountability through the development and enforcement of strong legal and regulatory frameworks is central to effectively addressing labour exploitation in complex global supply chains. Improving accountability, however, relies on State and private actors, as well as the advocates who hold them to account, having awareness and understanding of their respective obligations. Knowledge is therefore the key to accountability for labour exploitation.

Focus on Labour Exploitation (FLEX) is currently developing a ‘Corporate Accountability Database’ of national laws and regulations to address human trafficking and forced labour in supply chains. The database will complement and enhance civil society initiatives and provide the tools for advocating greater government effort in this regard, by delivering easily accessible information on national frameworks for individual and corporate accountability. The database will provide a basis for accountability actions, by identifying the obligations of governments and corporations, while also providing models for good practice in legislative development.

During the first phase of the project, FLEX will be covering 11 countries (Brazil, Qatar, Bangladesh, Argentina, Côte d’Ivoire, Philippines, UK, Belgium, India, Thailand and the United States), but it is our intention to continue to expand the database to cover other countries and to widen its scope past this initial pilot phase.

FLEX is currently collecting inputs to this project in the form of a questionnaire . 

Practitioners are invited to provide information to help identify key legal and policy mechanisms to bring corporations to account for their use of trafficked, forced or slave labour. Responses are requested by June 12, 2015.